A Historical Perspective on the Unification of Private Law and the Future of the Civil Code

China has a long tradition of legal codification. In looking at the unification of private law, we need to follow three historical threads: the historicity of law, the rationality of private law and the rules governing the growth of private rights. Following on from and amending the Draft Civil Law of 2002, we can use restorative methods to formulate a nine-part civil code suited to China’s national circumstances. The nine parts comprise the General Principles of Civil Law; Marriage and Family Law; the Law of Succession; Real Rights Law; Intellectual Property Law; Contract Law; Employment Contract Law; Tort Liability Law; and the Law of the Application of Law for Foreign-related Civil Relations. With this goal in mind, we can adopt a four-step legislative process: firstly, integrate the Marriage Law and the Adoption Law to form a unified Marriage and Family Law; secondly, include Employment Contract Law as a separate section of the civil code; thirdly, include Intellectual Property Rights Law as a separate section of the civil code; and fourthly, amend the General Principles of Civil Law so as to integrate Personal Rights, the General Principles of Property Rights (the General Principles of Obligation), the General Principles of Commercial Law, etc. The civil code formed on this basis possesses historicity, flexibility and contemporaneity, and would become an important constituent in the restatement of Chinese civil life and the remolding of the Chinese system of law.